THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE Asquifh to the King. 10 DOWSTING STREET. Nov. 8. To-day's meeting of the Conference brought matters to a head. The 1910 proposed exclusion from the new machinery for settling deadlocks of Age 57-58 Home Rule and other so-called organic changes was exhaustively discussed. The result showed an apparently irreconcilable divergence of view. But it was agreed that each side should carefully review in con- sultation the whole situation. A further, and possibly a final, meeting will be held to-morrow. There were two more meetings before the end. " It will be a disappointment if we fail," he wrote to his wife on November 10, " but nobody's fault. We all agree that A. J. B, (Mr. Balfour) is head and shoulders above his colleagues. I had a rather intimate talk with hi'™ before the Conference this morning. He is very pessimistic about the future, and evidently sees nothing for himself but chagrin and a possible private life." We may sum the matter up by saying that what the Conference had been attempting was nothing less than to convert the immemorial unwritten into a written constitution — a task which would in any case have been one of enormous difficulty, and certainly could not be achieved by men who were deeply committed on one side or other in the controversies of the hour. Both parties had in mind certain great impending questions — especially Home Rule for Ireland — on which the one desired to remove obstructions and the other to block the way. No one had better reasons for desiring a settlement than Asquith, but there came a point at which he felt constrained to say that he could not justify to his supporters the concessions which he was asked to make, if the machinery for settlement between the two Houses was not to apply to the questions in which they were most interested. rv At the end of October this year, Lord Morley handed in his resignation as Secretary of State for India, and, honestly believing that he wished to take his discharge from office and public affaiiB,. Asquith accepted it. It is extremely doubtful whether Lord Morfey really desired to quit the India Office, and he certainly did not wish to quit the Government. !From the beginning of the Campbell- Bannerman Government he had spoken of having "banished myself to the Brahmaputra " ; and in the early days he gave